May 20
Forthcoming military
investigations into alleged
war crimes in Iraq will show
that a squad of U.S. Marines
killed about 24 Iraqi
civilians, including women
and children, while on a
patrol in Haditha, a higher
number than first believed,
and then gave inaccurate
reports on the incident to
their commanders.

May 21
In another bloody day for
British forces in Basra 3
soldiers were injured when
their armoured Land Rover
was hit by a roadside bomb.
In what has become a
familiar scene, a jeering
crowd surrounded the
vehicle, throwing grenades
and petrol bombs. The troops
managed to escape before the
Land Rover caught fire, but
one Iraqi brandished a
soldier`s helmet seized in
the fray.

May 22In
Ramadiwhole
neighborhoods are lawless,
too dangerous for police.
Some roads are so bomb-laden
that U.S. troops won`t use
them. Guerrillas attack U.S.
troops nearly every time
they venture out - and hit
their bases with gunfire,
rockets or mortars when they
don`t.Though not powerful
enough to overrun U.S.
positions, insurgents here
in the heart of the Sunni
Muslim triangle have fought
undermanned U.S. and Iraqi
forces to a virtual
stalemate.

May 23
Acts of violence have killed
nearly 2 500 people and
forced more than 85 000 to
flee their homes in Iraq,
the United Nations
assistance mission in Iraq
said on Tuesday in a
March-April report on the
human rights situation.

May 24
Baghdad`s main morgue, which
handles only the remains of
victims of violent or
suspicious deaths, not
including bombing victims,
issued 1,155 death
certificates in April, the
U.N. reported. This suggests
the overall death toll in
Baghdad has been far higher
than any figure that
officials have previously
made public.

May 25
The Muslim Clerics
Association, accused
U.S.-led forces and Iraqi
troops of killing 10
innocent civilians and
detaining 40 others near the
town of Yusufiya.

May 26
British forces in southern
Iraq have come under bomb,
mortar, rocket and sniper
attack almost twice a day
since January, losing 12
dead to hostile fire.Despite
government claims that the
security situation has
improved on the UK`s patch
to the point where up to
1000 troops can begin
withdrawing from July, about
75 of the 269 attacks and
four of the fatalities have
occurred in provinces said
to be relatively stable.

Iraq
supports
Iran`s
right to use nuclear
technology for
peaceful means and wants a
diplomatic solution to the
standoff between the Islamic
Republic and the U.S. over
uranium enrichment, the
Iraqi foreign minister said.
Meanwhile, Russian
defense minister Sergei
Ivanov reiterated Moscow`s
commitment to
supply
Iran with
sophisticated anti-aircraft
missiles,

*This
estimate is only of
English language media
reported deaths. A peer
reviewed epidemiological
survey (Roberts
et al., The Lancet, Vol 364
Issue 9448 pp 1857 1864)
estimated that in the 18
months following the
invasion 100, 000 excess
deaths or more have
occurred. Violence
accounted for most of the
excess deaths and air
strikes from coalition
forces accounted for most
violent deaths. Criticisms
of IBC methodology can be
found at
medialens